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RIAA Hearing Next Week Will Be Televised

Posted by kdawson on from the light-of-day dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "One commentator labels it 'another fly in the RIAA's ointment.' In SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum, the Boston, Massachusetts, RIAA case in which the defendant is represented by Harvard law professor Charles Nesson and a group of his students, the Judge has ruled that the hearing scheduled for January 22nd will be televised over the Internet. The hearing will relate to Mr. Tenenbaum's counterclaims against the record companies and against the RIAA. In her 11-page opinion (PDF), District Judge Nancy Gertner labeled as 'curious' the record companies' opposition to televising the proceedings, since their professed reason for bringing the cases is deterrence, 'a strategy [which] effectively relies on the publicity arising from this litigation'."

4 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. RIAA seeks $1 million for seven songs by Smidge207 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One million for 7 songs?! How does something like that even get in to court? Can you imagine if I stole $6.93 (.99 x 7) worth of beef jerky from 7-11? Do you think the court would even hear a case where they wanted a million for my crime?

    This is the new business model of the recording industry, which is exactly like the old model. Overcharge your customers and when that doesn't work, overcharge and extort from your customers to make up for shortfalls you generated because you have a crappy product.

    There's only so much "drug money", oops CD purchases, the listening public will bestow on ungrateful addicts, oops recording artists...

    (Yes I'm bitter this morning; still need my meth, oops coffee.)

    =Smidge=

    --
    Is it just my observation, or is eldavojohn an idiot?
    1. Re:RIAA seeks $1 million for seven songs by TheSpoom · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real problem is that the RIAA don't have a product anymore.

      They used to control the means of recording. No longer, since the equipment necessary can be got for much, much cheaper than years ago.

      They used to control the means of reproduction, in that they could actually mass produce your tapes / CDs for you. No longer, since stamping a CD is incredibly cheap now.

      Just about the only thing they still control is radio, and even then that's being eaten into by the internet and things like Pandora and last.fm, which their lobbyists are desperately trying to kill.

      Without a real business model, they're scraping for ways to maintain the position of control they used to have, and litigation is a very good way of doing just that, since most people don't have the means to actually fight them.

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
  2. Re:Terminology by DanTheStone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not theft, unauthorized copying. There's a difference; the cost to the owner is by decreased scarcity or potentially lost revenue, not by the loss of possession of an item with value. You can't steal thoughts and ideas, you can only copy them.

  3. Re:Send me a copy by eth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was wondering if someone could send me a recorded copy of the stream since I won't be able to watch it live.

    You're modded funny, but if they were to use BitTorrent to distribute the recorded proceedings after the fact it would provide an example of an unambiguously legitimate use for such things that judges would be able to identify with. :)